What is RSS and what can I do with it?

RSS is a specific format used for publishing content intended for syndication, such as blogs, news sites, article directories and etc.

The letters RSS actually can refer to several different formats, but the most common (and important for blog readers) is “Really Simple Syndication”, because that’s what an RSS feed offers you.

A very simple and easy way to grab the most recent content from your favorite blogs or other sites and have it all served to you in a single location rather than having to revisit the same sites over and over.

To do this you just need a Feed Reader. This can be either a desktop application, or a web based service (usually free) such as Google Reader or Bloglines.

Once you have a Feed Reader or an account with a feed reading service online, then you simply click the RSS buttons or links that say something like “Subscribe to this feed” on your favorite blogs, news or other sites that offer an RSS feed, and from then on you will be able to stay up to date with all of them from a single location rather than having to browse each site individually.

This can be a real time saver, and is especially good for saving wasted time from visiting sites that haven’t updated their content recently since your Feed Reader will let you know when there’s new content on any of your subscribed sites or not.

Here’s a short video that describes RSS and readers with fun illustrations:

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